Pickpocket

[PJ]

Hi All,

 

Well, I can confirm firsthand that pickpockets are definitely a problem here in China. I was waiting to get onto a bus in Foshan, my fiancee had already gotten on (you know those mass crowds of pushing people). I had just gotten out my bus fare and put my hand back in my pocket when I felt another hand (other than my own) in my pocket. The hand disappeared fast, fortunately my wallet was still there.

 

Also fortunately for that person I didn't see who it was, since I'm in a rather bad mood today.

 

That would have SUCKED, I didn't think about it before but I've been carrying around my credit cards and insurance cards and stuff, most of which is useless here anyway. I guess figure that whatever you take with you in your pocket, figure there's a probability it could get stolen.

 

P.J.

[beijingjenny]

Yes, it definitely happens a lot, and you are lucky. Only carry what you really have to and nothing on your back! I had a few hundred kuai stolen from my purse (stupidly hanging open on a crowded street), but could have been much worse if a stall keeper didn't notice. Still, we were leaving one town and in the next, would you believe it, there was every bank BUT mine and not one single ATM in the blasted touristy town. Fortunately my husband is clever enough to know you can wire money through the PO so a friend helped us out, but nightmare nearly since cash was tight as it was...

 

I'm lucky that's all that happened to me, but it happens every day on things like buses (one kind driver stopped a bus once while the girl looked frantically but too late for her phone, and one of my husband's students newly arrived in BJ also had her phone and wallet taken from her backpack on a bus). I try to keep a close on suspicious people as much as possible, for myself and everyone else.

[Robert S.]

Ping-ping made me carry my wallet in my front pocket while in China, and even that is not protection against highly skilled pickpockets. I bought one of those hide-a-wallet things that have a cord going around your neck and then you hide it under your shirt to use next time.

[corvette]

In China you can never put your wallet in the back pocket. I always carry my backpack in front, just in case.

[Squid]

cord going around your neck

Is that smart?

[yave20b]

I always put everything I carry in those travel wallets that either hang around your neck or hang around your waiste inside your shirt. The crowded buses are the fertile grounds for pick-pockets. I try to avoid them but my fiancee loves them for some reason. Of course, she's had her money stolen several times from those crowded buses. I'm not sure but I really think pick-pockets invented the time honored art of "pushing and shoving" in lines in China.....just so they could make it easier for themselves to rid you of your riches.

[yyp]

We were in the Old Town Bazaar in Shanghai last March watching a demonstration of traditional Chinese toys outside in the mall, when my MM casually looked up and told me to watch my wallet.

 

There was a crowd of people watching the demonstration, but right away my eye caught 4 or 5 men backing away from me into the crowd.

 

You could see it in their eyes that they had been discovered. They continued to melt away into the crowd. And that was that.

 

Before we had returned to Shanghai we had spent a couple weeks in Sanya, at our favorite hotel, and had met an older couple from the U.S. staying at the resort. The man had just been pick pocketed for 300 Yuan in the city.

 

Personally I wear a travel wallet (Royal Traveller by Samsonite), you can wear it inside your clothing but I wear it attached to my belt. It is constructed of heavy canvas material with the belt loop securely attached to the wallet. It is difficult to open the catch, and it is even difficult for me to open it sometimes.

 

Keep I mind that pick pockets typically work in pairs and while one is bumping you to distract you the other’s hand is in your pocket with your money. If someone bumps into you I suggest that your hand fly to your wallet before someone else’s does.

 

Moral of the story, have a MM with sharp eyes, stay alert and keep you money and documents secure.

[Guest Fionas_Fiance]

Money belts are a wonderful thing. They basically would have to molest you to get at your $$, or more importantly, your passport. I don't use a wallet in China. I keep a couple hundred RMB in my front left pocket for convenience. Anything I can't afford to lose I keep in the money belt.

[Phil & Ningning]

I never carry my wallet in China. Most everything in there is worthless outside the US. I do have three or four very comfortable cotton button-down shirts that I really like for traveling because there is a zippered pocket behind the main left pocket which also has a flap. I believe that zippered pocket has kept me wealthier than the average Chinese on more than one occasion. The one time we lert down our guard while together in ZS, my Sweetheart's cell phone was stolen. Since then, we always maintain a state of heightened awareness on the street.

[tywy_99]

I have a type of traveller's wallet that goes on your belt. I could wear it on my hip side but most of the time I kept it in front. A cool wallet, made of a canvas material with a flap and a latch. It can hold alot; money, cheques, passport, etc. I went a step further with it and sewed some heavy-duty velcro on the flap. I even had a hard time getting into it! And if a pick-pocket was familiar with that type of wallet, he would be really suprised when it didn't open because of the velcro! Then I would have to clean his clock!...lol.

I kept my most important items in it; passport, tickets, money, etc.

For around town spending money, I had a little zipper money bag on a string.

[tonado]

My wife said that the street market in Nanning is loaded with pick-pockets. She said they use clamps to snatch your wallets.

[se_lang]

give all the money to my woman, she keeps it in her zippered an buttoned purse nicely kept between us slightly to the front while we walk arm in arm, never a problem.

[Alex]

The best way to go is a money belt. I stuffed it with my cash and kept my passport in there too. I wore the money belt down in my pants ...not around my waist. ....I call it the "safety deposit crotch" system My fiance got a kick out of the fact that I had to go to the bathroom before I made any large cash transaction.

[PJ]

cord going around your neck

 

Actually my future in-laws recently told me a story that someone was killed because the thief was trying to steal their necklace and it didn't come off, so the thief ended up choking the person to death. Really sad.

 

The money belt under clothes seems to be quite secure, unless someone outright mugs you. And I'm carrying only what I need, nothing more. There seems to be little of that here, though, I haven't seen or heard of it. Mostly pickpockets.

 

I've started carrying only a bag of tissues around in my pocket. It makes a nice bulge same as a wallet. And my sweat towel, since I'm used to my nice air conditioned car, and there is no A/C here. I almost hope someone goes through the trouble of snatching my sweat towel. It would serve them right.

[umgoblue]

I also can share a pickpocket story from my first trip to China almost exactly 1 year ago, during the October national holiday. I was with a tourist group in Beijing at the Forbidden City and it was very very crowded. Basically as you walked thru the FC to the various temples, at each there would be a mass of people all pushed up against the front trying to get a look inside. They had guards with megaphones yelling (only in Chinese) to keep moving and no pictures.

 

At one of the temples I have no idea how, but I noticed a tall thin chinese guy, must have seen him several times without notice and it seemed odd. As I moved against the crowd, so did he, as I moved with the crowd so did he, he never would look at me but was getting closer and closer, I guess we were looking at each other out of the corner of our eyes. And it still amazes me that I noticed him acting strange. Suddenly in one move he quickly was up against me, of course I had people against me on all sides, one big huge mass of people, at times my feet didn't even touch the ground.

 

I had my wallet in cargo pants in a front pocket and was just so surprised how quickly he moved then separated from me. In a panic I checked all pockets and found nothing missing, but here he came again for attempt #2. And as he got near, I pushed him away and he basically fell back into the crowd. And at this point all the chinese people just saw it as me pushing a chinese guy, didn't know the real story. Next thing you know I had the mob all yelling at me in Chinese, I had no idea what they were saying but I could imagine it wasn't good. I just got out of that area quickly and told the tourist guide, she asked for a description of the guy and that was easy because he was still there, I pointed him out and the guy almost ran to get away. The guide told the police there and I thought that was the end. But almost 2 hours later at the end of the tour, the crowd separated to let a police car thru and there was the pickpocket in the back seat.

 

I felt happy about that, I guess they followed him around and caught him trying on someone else. The tourist guide said it happens all the time and that he would just be kept overnight then released and probably back here the next day trying again.

 

So now I'm far more cautious, I empty my wallet out except for the bare minimum and only 1 credit card, and carry that inside a hip wallet or put it in my girlfriends purse which has a zipper.

 

So watch out!

 

-- Rick